NASA launched the Hubble Space Telescope on April 24th, 1990. Since then we’ve discovered things that we never even imagined, and seen light from distant galaxies and stars billions of years old.

Named for groundbreaking astronomer Edwin Hubble, the Hubble Space Telescope has helped astronomers prove the existence of black holes, dark energy, and defined the age of the universe.

NASA celebrates 20 years of amazing astronomical discoveries with the Hubble Space Telescope with an interactive showcase of incredible images of our universe.

NASA has also announced the extension of the Hubble Space Telescope Science Operations Contract through April 2013, which will extend science operations with the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy for the Hubble Space Telescope Science Operations Center located at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

Earth Day reaches it’s 40th anniversary. The annual celebration of our environment began in 1970. Here’s the top green stories and stunning images of earth from space…

NASA Celebrates Earth Day with photographs of planet Earth in an amazing slide show.

50 Green Tips for Earth Day on climate.weather.com

See human footprint from space on earthsky.org

40 years after the first Earth Day, the world is in greater peril than ever. While climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, it also presents the greatest opportunity; an unprecedented opportunity to build a healthy, prosperous, clean energy economy now and for the future. Visit earthday.org

Earth Day at 40: Our Changing View of the Planet on space.com

The Earth Observatory shares images, stories, and discoveries about climate and the environment that emerge from NASA research.

Whole-Earth Views from Geostationary Satellites at planetary.org

Space shuttle Discovery has landed at the Kennedy Space Center after transporting it’s seven astronauts more than six million miles. The crew claimed a successful mission during a post flight press conference, even after facing the challenge of a stuck pressure valve on a replacement tank.

Discovery returned from mission STS-131 to the International Space Station, where the crew delivered more than seven tons of equipment and supplies. During the ten day mission, astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson executed three spacewalks, installed a 1,700-pound ammonia tank assembly on the station’s exterior, replaced a rate gyro assembly, and retrieved a Japanese experiment and two debris shields.

Source: NASA Space Shuttle Missions

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Only three more shuttle missions remain in the space program. U.S. astronauts will then be riding with the Russian cosmonauts to get back and forth from the International Space Station. Let’s just hope private aerospace engineers and companies will be able to carry NASA’s space program forward, since the administration won’t.

Source: NASA TV

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The newspapers hardly mentioned the Apollo 13 flight, as NASA missions had become routine as far as the media was concerned. The headlines in April 1970 were more about the Vietnam war and the breakup of The Beatles.

The three man Apollo 13 crew had to abandon their moon mission on April 13th when an explosion ruptured the Service Module, when one of their three liquid oxygen tanks exploded. The moon mission immediately turned into a rescue mission.

Commander James A. Lovell, Command Module Pilot John L. “Jack” Swigert and Lunar Module Pilot Fred W. Haise had to shut down the Command Module, and use the Lunar Module (LEM) as a lifeboat to return to earth.

The safest flight plan to return to earth took four days, with the crew crammed into the lunar module which was only designed for two men for two days. Low on power, oxygen and water, the astronauts also had to survive frigid temperatures; there wasn’t enough power for heat.

Halfway home another problem emerged. The carbon dioxide wasn’t getting removed from their oxygen supply; NASA command had to come up with an emergency fix for the air scrubbers, to provide enough breathable air for the three astronauts to return home to earth. The Apollo 13 crew literally had to “fit a square peg into a round hole,” and a working solution was rigged up for the remainder of the flight.

Another emergency maneuver was required upon approach to the earth, as the space craft was off course by about 80 miles. Again, the crew rose to the occasion and guided their ship back on course.

The crew had to power the command module back up, which had never been done before during a space flight. Power came up and the astronauts transferred back to the command module as they prepared to burn through the atmosphere back to earth.

Once the service module was jettisoned, they could see the damage; an entire panel had been blown out. One more concern remained; would the heat shield hold up during reentry? Had it been damaged during the explosion? That concern grew during the blackout phase of reentry, when the crew didn’t answer NASA command.

Affirmative response was a full thirty seconds late from the crew, and once the capsule’s parachutes depoyed, the return of Apollo 13 was confirmed. Despite these incredible hardships, the crew returned safely to Earth on Friday, April 17th, 1970. It was NASA’s finest hour, as Houston’s Command Center worked through the many failures and challenges with the Apollo 13 astronauts. “Gentlemen, failure is not an option.”

Imagine, the computer power in your handheld computer today is more powerful than the onboard computers aboard the Apollo spacecraft. Makes the accomplishment seem that much more fantastic, doesn’t it?

Dateline NBC just broadcast a special program about Apollo 13. James Lovell wrote a book about his experience; Apollo 13 the movie was based on it.

More info at nasa.gov

They’ve retrieved a science experiment on the Japanese Kibo Laboratory, replaced a rate gyro assembly on the center segment of the station’s truss, and removed an ammonia tank used to help cool the station.

The accuracy and co-ordination between the astronauts while working in space is amazing. Imagine floating weightless in space for six-and-a-half-hours, while orbiting the earth at 17,000 miles an hour. Often they have to use the grappling robotic arm from the shuttle’s payload bay to latch onto a moving target. It’s a real tribute to the teamwork between the flight and ground crews.

Mission STS-131 continues with the transfer of science lab racks inside the space station.

Source: NASA TV on YouTube

Liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center took place at 6:21 a.m. EDT on Monday, April 5th.

Here is the video of the lift-off on NASA TV’s YouTube Channel.

Mission STS-131 Press Kit

Follow NASA’s Launch Blog beginning at 1:15 AM.

Commander Alan Poindexter, Pilot Jim Dutton, Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio, Clay Anderson, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson and Naoko Yamazaki will execute the 33rd shuttle mission to the International Space Station.

Discovery will carry a multi-purpose logistics module filled with science racks for the laboratories aboard the ISS. The mission has three planned spacewalks, with work to include replacing an ammonia tank assembly, retrieving a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior, and switching out a rate gyro assembly on the S0 segment of the station’s truss structure.

NASA Television Schedule & Video: nasa.gov/ntv

Official Press Kit for Mission STS-131

The International Space Station is 98 percent complete, following NASA’s last big construction project, known as the Tranquility connecting node and cupola. The project added a new room and observation deck to the space station, giving the ISS crew a 360 degree view of earth through it’s seven windows.

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Nicholas Patrick conducted three spacewalks for a total of eighteen hours working outside the space station to install the Tranquility node. There’s only four more shuttle missions, including space shuttle Discovery, scheduled to liftoff in April.

NASA Shuttle Mission Pages